Past and Future Heritage in the Pipelines Corridor-Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey

12 September 2011

BP on behalf of its co-venturers in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) projects today hosted public presentation of the book “Past and Future Heritage in the Pipelines Corridor – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey”, which is a fundamental cultural heritage research publication sponsored by BP and its co-venturers.
The book presents new discoveries from excavations during the pipelines construction activities along the BTC/SCP route from the Caspian to the Mediterranean. These discoveries, which were made by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of Azerbaijan, the Georgian National Museum and Turkey’s Gazi University, contain some priceless artifacts that have been handed over to the three governments for storing, studying and preserving for future generations. In addition to containing valuable research materials and scientific information about all the archaeological discoveries along BTC and SCP, the book is a guide to the historic cultures of the three nations – Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey which present some of the world’s most ancient cultures. The texts are provided in three languages – Azerbaijani, English and Georgian.
The research and publication are part of BTC and SCP’s cultural heritage programme along the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey pipeline corridor. The programme, which started in 2008, had two main goals - public outreach and capacity building and targeted at three major beneficiaries: Gobustan State Historical-Artistic Reserve in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, and the Georgian National Museum.
In his speech at the presentation event Rashid Javanshir, BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, said:” We are very proud to have made this valuable contribution to the research of the historic cultures of one of the world’s most ancient civilisations historically residing along our pipelines route from the Caspian to the Mediterranean. This research is part of BP and its co-venturers’ major cultural heritage sponsorship programme. I am really pleased that our programme gave an opportunity to teams of Azerbaijani, Georgian, Turkish, British and American archaeologists to travel along the pipelines route during our construction activities discovering hundreds of previously unknown and unexcavated sites. We have been advised that part of the programme, namely the part which we conducted in Azerbaijan and Georgia, was the first major archaeological excavation programme since the fall of the Soviet Union. The results are really exciting and we believe the publication that we are presenting today will serve as a valuable scientific reference book enabling readers from all over the world to reach the region’s rich cultural heritage”.
For further information:
Tamam Bayatly at BP’s Press Office in Baku, telephone: 994 12 599 4557